Speaker Stand Project---Finished

[Jeffrey Makiel]

My brothers and I built an entertainment unit about 17 years ago with accompanying speaker stands that housed 'bookshelf' speakers. I recently blew out one of the speakers and therefore upgraded to larger Infinity speakers. So, I had to remake a new speaker stand for them.

Here are some pics showing the conceptual design rendering (previously posted at SMC) of the new speaker stands with the existing entertainment unit, the construction process and the final product.

-Jeff :)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/Slide1-2.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/Slide2-2.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/Slide3-1.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/EntertainUnit891x722.jpg

[Tim Malyszko]

That looks awesome. Nice work!!!

[Don Bullock]

Very impressive. Nice work.

[Dan Stuewe]

Looks really nice, great job on the construction.

I'm curious about enclosing the back. Is this common? I guess I thought speakers needed space in the back. Also, why is the bottom quarter of the speaker covered?

Again, it looks really cool (especially with the built in fish tank!). Just a couple of questions that popped into my head.

[Per Swenson]

Jeffery,

That's excellent, love it.

The lava lamp too.

Per

(who has 6), (Lava Lamps)

[Gary Eneberg]

Dang that's big, but beautiful as well.

Nice work.

Gary

[Pete Harbin]

Outstanding Jeffery! I really like the whole look.

Pete

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Thanks for the positive responses!

Dan...The back of the factory speaker has nothing going on other than the speaker wire connections. Also, the lower part of the speaker was covered with oak tambour just below the bass port because it looked better to us. We were able to do this because there is nothing below the bass port as shown in the manufacturer's picture below.

Although the factory speakers are 'floor standing' models, we noticed that the speaker sounded brighter when raised above the carpeted floor about a foot or so. Therefore, the speaker stands were designed accordingly.

cheers, Jeff :)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/h700P360-f.jpg

[scott spencer]

I love the look Jeffrey. Hope you removed the original Infinity grill from the fronts...it's amazing what's audible.

[Mark Singer]

Jeffery,
Really great work...It all comes together!

[luc gendron]

That looks awesome. I wonder if you could give us a crash course on how you made the panels for the doors?

[glenn bradley]

What an amazing presence. Very, very cool.

[Mark Valsi]

wow !!

my first words were, "Holy @#%#$@!!!!!, that's beautiful"

[Bruce Page]

Speechless in New Mexico! :eek: :eek:
That is stunning work. I have a pair of Polk R12’s that are very similar in size & shape to the Infinity. Now I have something else to ponder…
Is that a built in salt water aquarium to the left of the EC?

[Jesse Thornton]

That looks stupendously good! I second Luc's request; I'm love to know how you went about making those doors.

[Dan Forman]

Gorgeous, very impressive!

Dan

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Here is a photo essay on how the doors were made. The basic design of the doors are from book called "Solid-Wood Cabinet Construction" by Franz Karg Taunton Press 1991) that was adapted to this project. This is an excellent book on contemporary designs with a Scandinavian flavor.

The doors were made from 1" (5/4) oak with spline construction. It's best to use quarter sawn oak because grain direction is an important visual feature.

The body of the entertainment unit is made from individual oak tambour strips machined on a router table and ripped with a bandsaw and fastened over 3/4" oak plywood with blind tacks and adhesive from the back. It was a somewhat tedious fabrication.

Bruce...that's a 150 gallon marine aquarium built into the wall. There is a very small service room behind it for the pumps and filters. The first aquarium sprung a leak in 2000. It got the bottom of the entertainment unit wet and caused some minor damage on the base plate of the unit.

cheers, Jeff :)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/Slide1-3.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/Slide2-3.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y84/Beff2/Slide3-2.jpg

[luc gendron]

Thank you for that info. I'm going to have to try that! By the way, wich CAD program do you use?

[Al Bois]

Wow! Great job. Matches your existing cabinet perfectly.

Looks to be a beautiful room. I'm also a fan of the fish tank.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

One again, thanks for the kind comments.

Luc...I used an old version of AutoCAD and exported the images as TIFF picture files. The images were then inserted into MS PowerPoint where additional annotation was added. Then the PowerPoint slides were 'saved as' JPEG picture files for posting.

-Jeff :)

[Jim Becker]

Geepers...they look like they grew there right along side of the original EC! Nice!!

[jonathan snyder]

WOW, and to think I was pretty proud of the end table I just completed.

The quality of work done by Saw Mill Creek members continues to amaze me. Fortunately I am also inspired.

Jonathan

[Jesse Thornton]

Thanks for posting the door explanation, Jeffrey. Very cool! Where did the idea come from - or was it entirely your own brainchild? Either way, the results are impressive - and humbling.:)

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Jesse...My brothers and I conjured up the basic design and implemented the door design from the book I discussed in the previous post above. The design was done using hand sketches, hand drawings, and full size posterboard templates. Computers were not readily available then.

I would also caution that when designing furniture for electronics, there is an inherent risk because electronics are always changing. For instance, the entertainment unit above cannot support the smallest plasma TV which is 42" due to the new widescreen format (16:9 ratio), even though the unit was built to support a 42" CRT TV in picture box format (4:3) at the time.

Also, two of the three pullout draws in the lower unit behind the flat doors were made to accomodate video tapes and cassettes. These formats are dead or dying. The third draw supports music CDs (or DVDs) which were a the "new" thing at the time. On the bright side, I can always remake the draws when it comes time to toss the tapes.

-Jeff :)

[Jesse Thornton]

Jesse...My brothers and I conjured up the basic design and implemented the door design from the book I discussed in the previous post above.
Ha, I guess I was so eager to check out the pictures that I scanned the text a little too quickly!